Highlights from previous Oscars

The first Academy Awards I attended in person were held in 1981, to honour films of 1980. Would-be assassin John Hinckley Jr. shot U.S. President Ronald Reagan in Washington, D.C. on Monday, March 30, Oscar day. So organizers in Hollywood delayed their ceremony for 24 hours.

That meant they also delayed announcing of one of the most egregious mistakes in Oscar history: Robert Redford’s modest drama Ordinary People beating Martin Scorsese’s masterful Raging Bull for best picture.

Regardless, the delay could not be called a highlight of my Oscar experience, out of respect for Reagan, who recovered, and his press secretary James Brady, who was left paralyzed. But one of the events of March 31st does stand out — and reminds me how casual and intimate the Oscars used to be. Now they are a tightly controlled and manipulative publicity machine.

In that era, however, winners and most presenters came backstage to mingle with the media. Winners would take turns standing on a podium to field questions. I felt a nudge at my left elbow. A forlorn looking winner, clutching his Oscar, asked for guidance. It was Robert De Niro. He has just won as best actor for Raging Bull.

Never comfortable with publicity, De Niro was disoriented, alone and needed help. I suggested he wait for Redford, winner as best director, to finish his impromptu press conference. While waiting for his turn, we chatted quietly, mostly about his eagerness to co-star with Hollywood comedy legend Jerry Lewis in his next film. It was the best conversation I ever had with De Niro, who is awkward in more formal interviews. Ah, the good old days …

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS FROM OSCAR NIGHT:

– Michael Moore, winning at the 2003 ceremony for his doc Bowling for Columbine, blasted U.S. President George Bush as a "fictitious president" who mongered the Iraq war for "fictitious reasons". Moore was cheered and booed in equal measure but history has proven that the war was, indeed, propelled by damned lies.

– One benefit of being backstage at the Oscars is seeing how goofy some winners get. At the 2006 Oscars, Philip Seymour Hoffman was obviously lubricated when he got to the press room. Holding what looked like a glass of hooch-on-the rocks in one hand, and his Oscar in the other, Hoffman was the epitome of an actor cutting loose and swearing a blue streak of happiness.

– The Oscars can thrill nationalists, especially in the best foreign language category. When Quebec’s master filmmaker Denys Arcand won for The Barbarian Invasions at the 2004 ceremony, I was proud to share that moment and ask him about being the first (and still the only) Canadian winner in this category.

– I just watched the 1974 Oscars on TV but will never forget David Niven and the streaker, Robert Opel. "Well, ladies and gentlemen, that was almost bound to happen," Niven quipped. "But isn’t it fascinating to think that probably the only laugh that man will ever get in his life is by stripping off and showing his shortcomings?"

THE VIEW FROM THE SOFA

Argo

Good timing! Ben Affleck’s dramatic thriller about "the Canadian Caper" during the 1979-81 Iran hostage crisis debuted this week. It arrived just as "Oscarologists" claim that Affleck’s film has overtaken Lincoln as odds-on favourite to win the best picture Oscar on Sunday. Affleck may have missed out on director and actor noms, but his reputation is growing exponentially as a serious actor-filmmaker. No wonder. Even though Argo plays loose with some facts from the real-life saga, Affleck’s film is engaging, intelligent and well-crafted. While the emphasis is on a CIA rescue plan, Argo also pays tribute to the role Canadians played, with Victor Garber portraying Canadian hero Ken Taylor. On the new combo pack, Affleck talks extensively about the project, including his personal fascination with Middle East politics. Another excellent extra is the doc Rescued from Tehran: We Were There, with former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, former CIA agent Tony Mendez (Affeck’s character) and Taylor’s real-life American "houseguests" re-living the events. That leaves viewers better able to gauge how truthful Affleck’s film is, at least to the spirit of the historical record.

Game of Thrones: The Complete Second Season

While HBO has cheapened the quality of its packaging, the products inside still reach the highest levels. So it is with the second season of Game of Thrones. Co-created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, and based on George R.R. Martin’s historical fantasy novels, Game of Thrones was already stunning in season one. It is even richer, more complex and more compelling now. This week’s new combo pack offers the series on two token DVDs stuffed inside as afterthoughts. But the treasures are the five Blu-ray discs with their remarkable visuals and the first-rate extras.

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